Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. $SQM Shares Newly Acquired by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. (NYSE:SQM) in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 9,641 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $625,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 35.5% in the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,337,746 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $86,780,000 after buying an additional 350,573 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 15.0% during the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 640,499 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,842,000 after acquiring an additional 83,738 shares in the last quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd acquired a new position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera during the 1st quarter worth approximately $50,183,000. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its position in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 602.0% during the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 502,484 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $40,671,000 after acquiring an additional 430,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ABN Amro Investment Solutions boosted its holdings in Sociedad Quimica y Minera by 87.1% in the 1st quarter. ABN Amro Investment Solutions now owns 265,677 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $21,504,000 after acquiring an additional 123,700 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 12.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

SQM has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $64.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Zacks Research cut shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Friday, October 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $88.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Friday. Scotiabank upped their target price on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $93.00 to $104.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Sociedad Quimica y Minera from $94.00 to $81.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, October 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $80.11.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Stock Down 0.2%

Shares of NYSE SQM opened at $57.39 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.55, a quick ratio of 1.96 and a current ratio of 2.61. Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. has a 1 year low of $46.51 and a 1 year high of $98.00. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $65.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $74.91. The firm has a market cap of $16.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.83, a PEG ratio of 0.20 and a beta of 1.10.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE:SQM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, August 14th. The basic materials company reported $2.31 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.03 by $0.28. The firm had revenue of $2.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.24 billion. Sociedad Quimica y Minera had a return on equity of 18.20% and a net margin of 20.62%. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s revenue for the quarter was up 136.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Sociedad Quimica y Minera S.A. will post 7.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 21st. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, September 8th were given a $1.4350 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, September 8th. Sociedad Quimica y Minera’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.85%.

Sociedad Quimica y Minera Company Profile

Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile, known as SQM, is a Chilean mining and chemical company that produces lithium and lithium derivatives, iodine, potassium nitrate, specialty plant nutrients and other industrial chemicals. Its products serve industries including energy storage, agriculture, pharmaceuticals and manufacturing.

The company’s operations are centered in northern Chile, including the Atacama Desert, where it extracts minerals and other resources from salt flats and mineral deposits.